The present invention related to improvements in miniaturized high-precision pressure regulators, and, in one particular aspect, to unique and advantageous pressure-regulator constructions wherein valved flow under control of a spring-biased diaphragm is directed around and past the rim of a diaphragm which is separately sealed along but one side, the related form of the body in such a regulator being of relatively small bulk and allowing for the substantially concealed enclosure of internal components which are readily assembled through one end port.
A conventional arrangement of elements of a pressure regulator typically includes a main valve having an axially-movable stem which is normally biased toward closure but is automatically opened, as required, to maintain a predetermined downstream pressure condition as the result of imbalances occurring between a counter-acting spring and an opposing pressure-responsive diaphragm. Many such devices are called upon to maintain pressure with great accuracy, over significant ranges of pressure and under severe environmental conditions of use. Both in their refined laboratory versions and in common industrial and consumer-orientated designs, it is generally important that manufacturing costs be minimized and that the product be readily usable but substantially tamper-proof. Because of the physical relationships which the diaphragm and main valve of such regulators tend to assume, flow out of the valve generally courses laterally in relation to the diaphragm, and the regulated output is expediently tapped from the body in a lateral direction as well. The diaphragm, which senses differences between an ambient pressure and the downstream pressure, must generally be sealed tight, and conventional practice has involved its convenient edge-clamping between body parts. Efforts to satisfy the numerous technical requirements for such devices has often resulted in complex multi-part bodies which are relatively bulky, costly to manufacture, and susceptible to damage or tampering.
An adjustable pressure regulator generally along the aformentioned lines was long ago discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,244,226, and later in U.S. Pat. No. 3,590,860, and in my own U.S. Pat. No. 3,699,998.